Conventional radar altimeter system measured directly the distance between the satellite and the ocean surface and frequently used by aircraft for approach and landing. The radar altimeter is good at flat surface like sea whereas it is difficult to determine precise three dimensional ground coordinates because the ground surface, unlike ocean, is very indented. To overcome this drawback of the radar altimeter, we have developed and validated the interferometric radar altimeter signal processing which is combined with new synthetic aperture and interferometric signal processing algorithm to extract precise three-dimensional ground coordinates. The proposed algorithm can accurately measure the three dimensional ground coordinates using three antennas. In a set of 70 simulations, the averages of errors in x, y and z directions were approximately -0.40 m, -0.02 m and 4.22 m, respectively and the RMSEs were about 3.40 m, 0.30 m and 6.20 m, respectively. The overall results represent that the proposed algorithm is effective for accurate three dimensional ground positioning.

The high-resolution X-band SAR systems such as COSMO-SkyMED and TerraSAR-X have been launched recently. In addition KOMPSAT-5 will be launched in the early of 2012. In this study we developed the new method for persistent scatterer candidate (PSC) selection and network construction, which is more suitable for PSInSAR analysis using multi-temporal X-band SAR data. PSC selection consists in two main steps: first, selection of initial PSCs based on amplitude dispersion index, mean amplitude, mean coherence. second, selection of final PSCs based on temporal coherence directly estimated from network analysis of initial PSCs. To increase the stability of network the Multi- TIN and complex network for non-urban area were addressed as well. The proposed algorithm was applied to twenty-one TerraSAR-X SAR of New Orleans. As a result many PSs were successfully extracted even in non-urban area. This research can be used as the practical application of KOMPSAT-5 for surface displacement monitoring using X-band PSInSAR.

We extracted a surface displacement map of Canisteo Peninsula and the surrounding area in West Antarctica by applying 4-pass DInSAR technique to two ERS-1/2 tandem pairs and analyzed the surface displacement of glaciers and sea ice. In the displacement map, glaciers showed fast motion pushing the adjoining land-fast sea ice which has the displacement in the same direction as the glacier. Cosgrove ice shelf showed large displacement pushing the adjoining land-fast sea ice as well. Some sea ice indicated the displacement that is opposite to the land-fast sea ice. This was because the type of the sea ice is drift ice that is affected by ocean current. Therefore, we could confirmed the boundary between land-fast sea ice and drift ice. It was difficult to distinguish ice shelf from ice sheet because they showed similarities both in brightness of the SAR images and in fringe rates of the interferograms. However, a boundary between fast-moving ice shelf and stable ice sheet was easily confirmed in the displacement map after the phase unwrapping process.

Sea ice concentration calculated from the AMSR-E onboard Aqua satellite by using NASA Team2 sea ice algorithm has proven to be very accurate over sea ice in Antarctic Ocean. When glacial ice such as icebergs and ice shelves are dominant in an AMSR-E footprint, the accuracy of the ice concentration calculated from NASA Team2 algorithm is not well maintained due to the different microwave characteristics of the glacial ice from sea ice. We extracted the concentrations of sea ice and glacial ice from two ENVISAT ASAR images of George V coast in southern Antarctica, and compared them with NASA Team2 sea ice concentration. The result showed that the NASA Team2 algorithm underestimates the concentration of glacial ice. To interpret the large deviation of estimation over glacial ice, we analyzed the characteristics of microwave radiation of the glacial ice in PR(polarization ratio), GR(spectral gradient ratio), (rotated PR), and domain. We found that glacial ice occupies a unique region in the PR, GR, , and domain different from other types of ice such as ice type A, B, and C, and open water. This implies that glacial ice can be added as a new category of ice to the AMSR-E NASA Team2 sea ice algorithm.

Nowadays, demands with respect to applications based on geo-based information on mobile device such as smartphone and those based on open platform or open source have been increasing. This trend can be regarded as significant opportunities to widen application fields and to expand industry business cases using satellite imagery. However, it needs a different approach from conventional remote sensing researches. This work focuses on SAR among many kinds of geo-based data resources. First, an application for Interferometric SAR processing based on open source was implemented. And using this, InSAR data was processed and stored into database. When smartphone users at any places request InSAR results, they can receive InSAR information and concerned metadata on their device. An smartphone application for this task was designed and implemented in this study. This provides a practical way for SAR service for smartphone, and can apply to build mobile service system of complex and compound types of remote sensing resources and their derived contents.

A modified iterative N-FINDR algorithm is developed for fully automatic extraction of endmembers from hyperspectral image data. This algorithm exploits the advantages of iterative NFINDR technique and Iterative Error analysis technique. The experiments using a simulated hyperspectral image data shows that the optimum number of endmembers can be automatically decided. The extracted endmembers and finally generated abundance fraction maps show the potentialities of the proposed algorithm. More studies are needed for verification of the applicability of the algorithm to the real hyperspectral image data where the absence of pure pixels is common.

The MTF(modulation transfer function) is one of parameters to evaluate the performance of imaging systems. Also, it can be used to restore information that is lost by a harsh space environment (radioactivity, extreme cold/heat condition and electromagnetic field etc.), atmospheric effects and falloff of system performance etc. This paper evaluated the MTF values of images taken by DubaiSat-1 satellite which was launched in 2009 by EIAST(Emirates Institute for Advanced Science and Technology) and Satrec Initiative. Generally, the MTF was assessed using various methods such as a point source method and a knife-edge method. This paper used the slanted-edge method. The slantededge method is the ISO 12233 standard for the MTF measurement of electronic still-picture cameras. The method is adapted to estimate the MTF values of line-scanning telescopes. After assessing the MTF, we performed the MTF compensation by generating a MTF convolution kernel based on the PSF(point spread function) with image denoising to enhance the image quality.

As one measure of image interpretability, NIIRS(National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale) has been used. Unlike MTF(Modulation Transfer Function), SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio), and GSD(Ground Sampling Distance), NIIRS can describe the quality of overall image at user`s perspective. NIIRS is observed with human observation directly or estimated by edge analysis. For edge analysis specially manufactured artificial target is used commonly. This target, formed with a tarp of black and white patterns, is deployed on the ground and imaged by the satellite. Due to this, the artificial target-based method needs a big expense and can not be performed often. In this paper, we propose a new edge analysis method that enables to estimate NIIRS accurately. In this method, natural targets available in the image are used and characteristics of the target are considered. For assessment of the algorithm, various experiments were carried out. The results showed that our algorithm can be used as an alternative to the artificial target-based method.

Land cover changes are occurring for a variety of reasons such as urbanization, infrastructure construction, desertification, drought, flood, and so on. Many researchers have studied the cause and effect of land cover changes, and also the methods for change detection. However, most of the detection methods are based on the dichotomy of "change" and "not change" according a threshold value. In this paper, we present a change detection method with the integration of probability, spatial autocorrelation, and hotspot detection. We used the AMOEBA (A Multidirectional Ecotope-Based Algorithm) and developed the AMOEBA-CH (core hotspot) because the original algorithm tends to produce too many clusters. Our method considers the probability of land cover changes and the spatial interactions between each pixel and its neighboring pixels using a local spatial autocorrelation measure. The core hotspots of land cover changes can be delineated by a contiguity-dominance model of our AMOEBA-CH method. We tested our algorithm in a simulation for land cover changes using NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) data in South Korea between 2000 and 2008.

This study assessed the feasibility to apply Two-band and Three-band reflectance models for chlorophyll-a estimation in turbid productive waters whose scale is smaller and narrower than ocean using a high spatial resolution image. Those band ratio models were successfully applied to analyzing chlorophyll-a concentrations of ocean or coastal water using Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS), Sea-viewing Wide Field-fo-view Sensor(SeaWiFS), Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer(MERIS), etc. Two-band and Three-band models based on band ratio such as Red and NIR band were generally used for the Chl-a in turbid waters. Two-band modes using Red and NIR bands of RapidEye image showed no significant results with 0.38. To enhance a band ratio between absorption and reflection peak, We used red-edge band(710 nm) of RapidEye image for Twoband and Three-band models. Red-RE Two-band and Red-RE-NIR Three-band reflectance model (with cubic equation) for the RapidEye image provided significance performances with 0.66 and 0.73, respectively. Their performance showed the `Approximate Prediction` with RPD, 1.39 and 1.29 and RMSE, 24.8, 22.4, respectively. Another three-band model with quadratic equation showed similar performances to Red-RE two-band model. The findings in this study demonstrated that Two-band and Three-band reflectance models using a red-edge band can approximately estimate chlorophyll-a concentrations in a turbid river water using high-resolution satellite image. In the distribution map of estimated Chl-a concentrations, three-band model with cubic equation showed lower values than twoband model. In the further works, quantification and correction of spectral interferences caused by suspended sediments and colored dissolved organic matters will improve the accuracy of chlorophyll-a estimation in turbid waters.